The Consultant Series Review: Christoph Waltz’s Intimidating Turn Will Give You the Chills in Amazon’s Sinister and Compelling Workplace Thriller (LatestLY Exclusive)

The Consultant Series Review: After completing The Consultant, a show that I was cautiously optimistic for, I was convinced that Prime Video originals have nailed the formula of making their viewers uncomfortable, but in a good way. With a show-stopping performance from Christoph Waltz and a plot that gets weirder by the episode, this was a treat that I did not expect at all. The Consultant Trailer: Christoph Waltz is the Worst Boss in the World in Amazon's Workplace Dark Comedy (Watch Video).

Developed by Tony Basgallop, The Consultant focuses on the company called Compware that specialises in making video games. With the death of its CEO Sang (Brian Yoon), who was killed when a child ended up shooting him, we see Regus Patoff (Christoph Waltz), a consultant for hire take his place and start running the company. What follows is a weird set of events that sees Patoff force himself into the lives of his employees and make for a hostile work culture that pushes everyone to their limits.

At the center of it all, we follow Elaine (Brittany O’Grady) and Craig (Nat Wolff), two employees of Compware who are trying to get to the bottom of who exactly this Patoff dude is. Brittany O’Grady does a fine job in bringing her character to life, while Nat Wolff’s return to television certainly makes for an interesting time. Both of their characters are fueled by success, and it creates an interesting dynamic when they have to work together and figure out what to do.

However, the scene stealer is Christoph Waltz. If you have seen Inglorious Basterds, then you can expect something similar here in terms of performance. It’s practically a weirder version of Hans Landa, and Waltz chews up the scenery everytime. He can be threatening, intimidating a bit too up-close and personal every now and then, and its what makes Regus Patoff such an anomaly. Referring his employees as “comrades,” he has this drill instructor feel to him, and it's that intrigue behind the character that Waltz carries so well.

Watch the Trailer:

Same can be said for The Consultant too. The show does a great job at keeping you hooked with its central mystery. The general tale of Elaine and Craig teaming up just to understand how Regus rose into the power he has; the story goes to some extremely weird places and it never really pulls back on any punches. Sometimes too weird for my own personal taste, but it really does a good job at blending drama with black comedy that got a light chuckle out of me.

As a show, it's structured quite well with eight episodes. Not much of it feels like filler, however, there are times when the intrigue can get a bit frustrating in its second half. The mystery is there, and The Consultant does a good job at building up to it, but some of the answers just come a bit too late than one would have anticipated them to.

The Consultant tries commenting on some of the socio-political issues related to gaming too, unfortunately, it never really dives deep in there. It creates for a conversation for whether gaming leads to violence in children or no, and it just feels like a line that is thrown in there to feel relevant. It occasionally does circle back to those conversations, but it just feels like a surface level take. The Consultant Teaser: Christoph Waltz Turns Up the Creep Factor in Amazon's Workplace Thriller (Watch Video).

When it comes to gaming though, it's not all bad in The Consultant. Hollywood productions tend to have this “gamer” persona when talking about the video game dev culture, and the show actually is able to beat those claims and makes the workplace itself seem lived in. It knows what it’s talking about. That all leads to The Consultant having a captivating dystopian feel, that I honestly felt enhanced the visuals and had my attention hooked throughout.

Yay!

Christoph Waltz

Doesn’t Hold Back Any Punches

Nay!

Intrigue Can Take Time to Unravel

Fails at Commenting on Socio-Political Issues

Final Thoughts

The Consultant was a treat. Eight episodes that have your attention throughout their tight 30-minute runtime and prove to be much engrossing. Christoph Waltz delivers another career highlight here, and it easily fits into Prime Video’s catalogue of uncomfortably enjoyable series. All eight episodes of The Consultant will be available on Amazon Prime Video on February 24, 2023.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Feb 23, 2023 11:59 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).